As promised, here's a quick update from #AllAfricaFutures in South Africa. More than ever, being here in Jozi is reinforcing a feeling of the "rich present": Internet-supported state of being in several physical, time and perception zones simultaneously. A kind of split vision of the present and future unfolding in real time.

Pan Africanism can be described as a movement of people on the continent looking to create a strong union based on passion for the continent. Well that is how I understand it.

Pan Africanism dates as far back as the year 1776. At the time, it was created or built to fight the slave trade and all other forms of colonialism. In 1945, a Pan African Congress was held in Manchester, England. That meeting advanced the issues of the Africans and also went ahead to help in the decolonization of the continent politically.

Happening at Wits University in South Africa is the All Africa Futures Conference. Yesterday started with a rich discussion but also with a lot of questions being asked on what Africa has got to do and needs to do.

Africa is a lovely continent without a doubt, but we have a few issues. Begging is one of them. I do not know if this is inherent. If we have to get anything, we prefer to beg. It is shown in our reliance on foreign aid and our love of gifts. We would rather consume goods made outside of the continent because we believe that they are ‘better’.

“I started living with my partner at the age of 14. My plans were to have a stable relationship, to keep on with school and to become a professional. However, I got pregnant at 15. At first I did not know how to take care of the newborn, I had to quit school.” Marcela 18, El Salvador.

“I was 14 years old and was in high school when I had to stop going to school because my family did not have the money to pay my school fees. My mother used to send my sister and me to the market to beg for something to bring home to eat. One day we begged two gentlemen for some money. They gave 2,000 Congolese francs [about $2] to my sister to buy food to take home.

The press has been awash with reports of Nigeria rebasing its economy, which resulted in Nigeria now having the biggest economy on the continent. What is even more interesting is that it has trampled South Africa from the position.

I took the liberty to ask youth from both South Africa and Nigeria what this meant to them and the future.

One of my childhood joys was visiting my grandmother. Every time we visited, we ate and her food was always distinct. It still is. But one thing I loved about it then was the fact that it came laced with a 'firewood' flavor. Now, you must be wondering what kind of a flavour that is, but food cooked with firewood over traditional cooking stones, has that 'firewood flavor to it'. Today though, I would not want her to go through all that. Matter of fact, I don’t appreciate her cooking with firewood anymore. I would rather she used something else like cooking gas, because it is not harmful to her body.

One of the things that humanity cannot do without is food. That is why food security has become quite a huge topic in Africa, though it never seems to beat war when it comes to being top of the agenda at the African Union in our countries For some reason, we are more concerned about going to war and how that will make us look than getting our people fed.

Early last year I was honoured to be a part of a conversation which focused on resilience for equity and foresight. A group of futurists, mainly from the Global South, met to discuss what the regions were bound to look like in 30 years.

One of the interesting sessions included a presentation on what had become East Africa's informal cities/settlements: the slums, the biggest and largest of which can be found in Nairobi Kenya. The biggest is called Kibera, followed by the Mukuru Sinani slum. We also had a chance to visit them.

This month is about the biggest game changers of our time. One of them is technology. Some have said education and innovation are key and others say that about communication. The opinions are varied and that is to be expected. I am taking part in a conference called Mobile East Africa and its focus is expanding mobile data usage and driving monetisation through industry collaboration. Key to this conference conversation is about what is the future of mobile. And because mobile is part of technology: it ties into this month’s theme.

I grew up reading Nancy Drew, CS Lewis [The Chronicles of Narnia] and Enid Blyton books. I was always fascinated by the way the stories were written. But also I wondered how come my life was so boring and yet these characters, young as I was were so full of drama and adventure. Books helped me to retreat to my small little world where I built dreams and hopes of my own. For a long time, they were my pass time. In High School, I read Sweet Valley High and Sweet Valley Twins the novel series created by Francine Pascal. They introduced me to what being a teenager meant. All these books I found in the school library. I usually borrowed and returned after a while and in primary school, each book I borrowed from the library, I returned with a book report. Sometimes I sat in a library for hours reading from there because it was quieter and the ambiance great.

I put out a question on social media recently as I was trying to pick a few minds on this topic”. Who are the biggest game changers of our time? The only answer that I got was: “David Moyes, he changed Manchester United's game for worse.” NO, I was looking for 'game changers' per se, but well I got an answer.

That aside: the things that have made a difference in this world are the things that we have grown accustomed to. They are, what we say, we cannot live without. For some they are 'rights', to others they are entitlements. And these are things that we sometimes take for granted.

Since the spark of the revolution in North Africa, the world's attention has been directed towards social movements. The revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt have inspired movements to emerge in the Middle East particularly Yemen and Bahrain then spread across the Arab region. The power of the masses has also inspired the streets of London, Spain and Romania. The mass mobilization has eventually grown into Occupy movements around the world to reach Wall Street, Gezi Park and Brazil. These movements explain a new reality of human connections. It asserts how people can inspire each other and support each other's movements. It translates common concerns and shared struggles for democracy and sustainability of people all over the world.

A few days ago I was at a meeting. The usual that take place in air conditioned rooms for about 3 days running. On one of these days, there was a youth panel. The panel was the first ever to be held in about 8 years of these conferences. As the youth spoke about what they believed was their role in society, they kept giving examples of initiatives led and executed by the youth. Majority of these were not self financed. They were donor financed. I remember John Armah who has been termed Ghana's youngest entrepreneur talking about some of the initiatives that he has put in place to support and help youth. One of them is Ghana Center for Entrepreneurship, Employment and Innovation [GCEEI]. This is supported by very many organizations among them, donor organizations.

Human development is critical to our conversation these days. Before the year 2000, I remember there being a rumor that the world was going to get a certain shift, and that of course would change the course of everything. 13 years later, nothing has changed in regard to the rumors made.

In September 2000, Fifteen year global targets, labeled the Millennium Development Goals [MDGs] were formulated and countries in the United Nations [UN] began to struggle to make their own mark and achieve the goals set. With just 2 years left, some have been met and some have not been met. There is and has been an increase in economic growth in most of Africa, but I must be quick to add that while there is visible economic growth, there is also imminent poverty.

Sovereignty is the responsibility to protect. It refers to the authority, or sense of entitlement, deriving from the right of people to protect themselves, either individually or by seeking the safety of numbers. The proper function of a sovereign entity is protection and preservation of life of its citizens.

Now is a good time to be optimistic about the future of Africa. We have seen so many emerging trends which not only amplify the Africa Rising or Africa Emerging story but also help us to define who we are and the future that lies ahead.

I am very well aware of the discrepancies that lie within. While we are saying that Africa is rising, there are still issues around who 'exactly' is rising. There is evidence that while most of the countries in Africa are experiencing economic growth, the real per capita income is at its lowest since 1970 and more than 500 million people still live in poverty on the continent.

Security has become the talk of the continent. We live in fear of the unknown. Every time that I think of what transpired at the recent Westgate attack in Nairobi, Kenya; my heart beats faster. It is very scary. What happened could happen in any part of the continent. And we would never see it coming. And even if we did, we can never be prepared for the aftermath. The physical and mostly emotional torture thereafter is immense: the impact that it leaves takes a long time to wear off. That all depends on how one is affected. For some, they never get over the ordeal; even if they do it takes longer for some than it does for the others.

The I9th Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change [COP19] is just about to come to an end and soon preparations for COP20 will be underway. The experience that comes with wanting to create new policies concerned with the environment is no mean task. As I read through what transpired during COP19, I realize that it is serious business going down, but I don't see any stern resolutions.

Globalization as the integration and interchange of so many aspects in life is responsible for a lot of things. Advances in telecommunications and the use of the internet being one of those prominent. Being able to communicate across boarders and timezones. In developing countries the positive changes brought about by globalization and the negative ones are highly pronounced. Rapid globalization makes competition for resources intense. It is highly extractive. As we see a lot of growth in interaction and economic independence especially in the developing countries, the migration of people is very imminent and so is the movement of investments. The negatives seem to stare us more boldly in the face than the celebrations that we are supposed to be having.